As Clear As Water
by MayaPotter97
Summary: Yes, James Potter is arrogant, flirty and rather annoying. But he is Lily's arrogant, flirty and rather annoying, and she'll make it clear to the nasty Georgette Smith when she tries to surpass the line. One-shot.


**As Clear As Water**

...

James Potter had always been annoying. Lily knew that from the first time their eyes had met. Hers, an emerald green colour, had seen a mischievous glint in those hazel brown eyes of his, and still saw it whenever their eyes met. Which, to Lily's dismay, happened a lot more often now they were both forced to share the Heads' Dorm.

James, by other hand, loved every time their eyes met. If only Lily could see he had changed...she still wore that forced smile whenever he tried to impress her, and would never laugh to his jokes more than a faint chuckle every now and then. He always tried to spend every possible minute around her, which only made Lily feel more annoyed, if possible. But she couldn't understand...he had liked her for so long, and now she just couldn't see he had grown up at once.

He looked at her slender, thin shape as she collected her classwork from one of the common room's tables. He was glad they had such a big space just for the two of them, but Lily seemed annoyed by this to a point in which she would never talk to him whenever they came back from patrolling.

"You ready?" he asked as the girl approached him, her backpack hanging over her shoulder loosely.

"No, I'm just standing here admiring your gorgeous body," she deadpanned, sarcasm dripping from her words.

"Oh, I know," James answered, pretending to strike a small pose. Lily rolled her eyes and tried to push him aside, but the young man caught her arm and smiled warmly. "Hey, I was just joking. Mind it if we go down to the Great Hall together?"

Lily's emerald green eyes met his, and James felt something tickling inside the walls of his stomach, but the Gryffindor Head Boy said nothing. Lily's expression softened after a few seconds and she gave him a small smile. "Okay."

James grinned and they both walked out of the Heads' Dorm. The boy tilted his head to one side as he saw her smiling at nothing in particular while they walked downstairs to the Great Hall.

"Why, Lily Evans is smiling?" he asked, his eyes wide in amazement. "I never realized you could do that!"

Lily looked at him with her brow furrowed, "Just shut up, will you?"

James gave her a pleased smile, but a split of a second later he mentally slapped himself for what he had just said. What a jerk he was! No wonder Lily didn't even like him as a friend. He saw how the girl pursed her lips and he felt wrong about having said what he said, so he tried to catch up with her.

"Hey, I'm sorry," he quickly said. "It's just–"

"No hard feelings, James," she said. "I...I know I'm not the funniest person around but–"

"Hey, hey," he said, knowing he had totally messed it all up. "I'm sorry for what I said. You're one of the brightest witches in this school. And of course, you're not a talented prankster like us the Marauders," Lily found it hard to not let her slight chuckle show. "But you know, you have your moments."

James's words made Lily smile. Of course, she slightly disliked her fellow Head mate, but she felt like something had changed between them over the last days. James had become a lot nicer to her – he had practically given up his jokes about her hair, which were what annoyed her the most about him. And well, the boy was quite fit and he definitely had a charm...

Yes, they could fit as friends.

"Thanks, Potter," she answered with a sly smile. "I'll take that into account."

James wanted to add something, like how he regretted having picked at her for her hair when it was one of the things he really loved about her. He wanted to say he was sorry, and wanted to tell her how badly he wanted to kiss those thin red lips that attracted his eyes whenever he saw her. But however, they just entered the Great Hall together and met up with their friends.

Although Lily wouldn't admit it to herself, she felt glad her best friend Alma was sitting down next to Remus, who was also one of her closest friends. To Lily, Remus was the only Marauder with a single neuron under those messy brown locks, and she enjoyed his conversations very much. They had grown very close when they both became Gryffindor prefects on their fifth year, to a point in which Remus told her about his lycanthropy. At first, the shiest of the Marauders had thought Lily would have ran away from him and thought of her fellow prefect as a freak, but instead she had given him a comforting hug and had told him he was a great young man and no physical state would change that. Other than Lily and the Marauders, no-one knew about Remus's "furry problem", as James called it.

"Hey, Lily!" Alma called her cheerfully. Lily smiled, she knew Alma had a small crush on Remus, and was glad they were getting to spend more time together.

"Prongs, you trying to flirt with the little redhead again?" another black-haired boy called James, laughing loudly.

Both Heads turned to find James's best friend, Sirius Black, chuckling at them as he ate some breakfast porridge. In front of him and to Alma's side sat the stubborn Vera, who was Lily's close friend too. Lily shot daggers at Sirius with her eyes, but said nothing.

"Oh, my dear Padfoot," James said as he and Lily sat down next to each other. "You're just as witty as usual, are you not?"

"I try," Sirius chuckled.

Lily felt her blush deepening under her friends' glances. She wondered if James really liked her, or if he was just trying to prank her again by asking her out. But the true question was: did she like James? She had always denied that to herself, but now she couldn't tell. He had certainly grown up over the last months, and she couldn't deny he was quite attractive. His personality still was rather mischievous, but well, that was just plain old James and nothing would be able to change that. Lily even liked that – a glimpse of the old, mischievous James in a brand-new and more mature man.

She found herself sighing over two croissants at the thought of kissing his lips.

Lily quickly shook her head and started eating her breakfast. No, she was not one of those girls. If James truly loved her, he would have to win her heart with more than smart looks and lame jokes.

The breakfast went on quite normally – Lily's eyes usually dropped on James, but she quickly fixed her sight at some other point. However, James did notice once or twice. He chuckled happily, but said nothing. Remus and Alma commented something on their Herbology essay – something weird and difficult most of their mates didn't understand – and Sirius and Vera threw small sarcasms at each other. Despite the quickness of their words, the other always had some funny comeback which sometimes even made the whole group crack up in laughter.

It was Wednesday morning, so Sirius, Remus and Alma left to Herbology, whilst the other three were left in the Great Hall. They had free period, so Vera told Lily she would go to the library and revise some Transfigurations theory before their lesson at ten o'clock. Said that, she left James and Lily in the Gryffindor table, still eating some of their breakfast each.

They ate in silence, until a young, slender figure appeared in front of them. It was a girl with dark brown hair and vivid blue eyes, which contrasted her tanned skin. She had a perfect smile and looked at James. She proudly wore a Hufflepuff cloak, and Lily knew her from her Arithmancy lessons.

"Hey, Lily," the girl greeted her.

"Hi, Georgette," Lily answered. She couldn't help but frown, because she had never really talked to Georgette. They only had Arithmancy as a common subject, and she couldn't quite guess why had she come around to the Gryffindor table.

The Hufflepuff seventh year sat in front of James and smiled at him.

"Hello," she said, fixing a look at his hazel brown eyes. "I don't think we've had the pleasure to meet yet."

"Um- right," James answered, not really bothering to look at her. He seemed more interested in slicing his bacon down. "Hi then. I'm James Potter."

"I already know you're James Potter," Georgette laughed, as if knowing James Potter was just as important as knowing how to multiply. "I mean, who _doesn't_ know you? You're the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, _and_ Head Boy...you know, even first years know you."

"Um, thanks," James answered, again not really paying attention to Georgette's flattering words. "It's nice to know I'm known around."

"Anyway, I'm Georgette Haley," the Hufflepuff told him. When James looked at her for the first time, he nodded and went back to slicing some of his sausages.

"Nice to meet you," the young man commented.

He was trying not to sound rude, but he had given up on pretty girls. This year, there would be no other girl in his life other than Lily, and he had sworn to stick to that unless the year ended and he clearly got Lily wasn't interested on him.

Georgette seemed to roll her eyes, which annoyed Lily greatly. The redhead knew what the Hufflepuff was planning, and she didn't like the idea.

"Well, James," Georgette said. "I was actually thinking it would be nice if we strolled out together sometime. You know, just you and I..."

Lily seemed to cough for attention. James looked at her closely, while Georgette rolled her eyes at her with a bored expression. Lily offered Georgette a fake smile and commented after finishing her meal,

"You know, it would be neat if you guys became friends."

Georgette rolled her eyes once again and this time she winked at James too, "I was thinking about becoming...more than friends, if you know what I mean."

"Best friends?" Lily suggested, trying to make the girl go away. "I'm sorry, but Sirius has already taken that spot. And Remus and Peter are 'very very very-bordering-best-friends' too, so that wouldn't work either. Sorry, Georgette," Lily shrugged her arms. "You'll just have to be friends."

"Oh, just shut up," Georgette said rather rudely.

"Hey, don't tell her when to shut up," James exclaimed suddenly.

Lily looked at James, rather startled, but she found him frowning deeply at Georgette. The girl just scowled.

"Okay, fine," she mumbled.

Said this, Georgette walked away, commenting something rather rude about Lily's hair. When Georgette Haley was far enough from them, James gave Lily a soft smile.

"Best friends?" he mimicked. Lily shrugged and the boy gave her a grin. "That was brilliant, Evans. Just brilliant."

"Thanks," Lily muttered.

She suddenly realized she had never stood up to a boy like that before. When Georgette had started flirting with James she had felt such a pain inside her she just wanted the girl to go away and stay with James and his lame jokes. Did she really like him? Well, it might be true after all.

"But anyway, what was all that for?" James asked after they had finished their breakfast. "You didn't think I would snog with that goody-two-shoes, did you?"

"Of course I didn't," Lily quickly answered, trying to seem offended. "I just...she's really bad in Arithmancy. She's most likely to fail most of her NEWTs this year, and you have enough trouble with your own marks."

"Yeah, sure," James laughed. He tugged Lily's cheek with a playful expression. "Is little Lily jealous?"

Lily giggled at James's attitude, but just shook her head, "Just shut up, James."

They decided to head back to their Dorm until five to. When they reached the common room, Lily left her backpack next to the couch and sat down in the couch, in front of the fire. A few seconds later James followed suit, sitting down next to her and wrapping the girl's shoulders with his strong arm. And for the first time, Lily didn't say anything.

James Potter might have been the most arrogant, mischievous and annoying boy in the castle, but he was _Lily's_ arrogant, mischievous and annoying boy. And no Hufflepuff girl would change that.

...

**Author's Note**: Thanks for taking the time to read this! Reviews are always welcome, as long as they're not flames. I'll be writing more James/Lily one-shots and perhaps longer stories soon, so stay tuned!


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